Have GOP candidates found the banner?

Say what you will of Ulysses S. Grant as a Republican president (unimpressive) or as a man (he demonstrated compelling courage at the end) -- he was a heck of a campaigner.

And there wasn't a lot of subtlety to the general's approach. Not for him the late-night countermarch or the rapier-like blow delivered deep behind the lines.

No, Grant rediscovered what Wellington had figured out in Spain, 50 years before. Where their predecessors had pulled back to regroup after each major action -- meaning they had to return and fight for the same territory again and again -- Grant was a pit bull. Once he had hold of something he only growled, hung on and resolved to do nothing but lunge further and bite deeper.

On May 11, 1864, during the two-week battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse, Grant sent President Abraham Lincoln his most famous dispatch, declaring, "I propose to fight it out along this line if it takes all summer."

A more brilliant and mercurial commander might have grown frustrated, run off and tried something new. Not Grant. His teeth were in.

The next day he ordered Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock's 2nd Corps to carry out a massive attack on the Confederate line, resulting in the capture of 30 artillery pieces and about 4,000 prisoners.

The war might last another year, but after that there was no going back -- nor any doubt who would call the tune.

Today's Republican Party needs to rediscover Gen. Grant. The party has grown so accustomed to playing "Me-too" to collectivist Democrat initiatives -- How can we further collectivize American medicine? How shall we raise more tax revenue? How can we further expand the central government to take away more freedoms while promising everyone more goodies? -- that they invite the obvious question: "If these Republicans are so busy insisting they're 'just as good as Democrats,' why not pick the real thing?"

The irony is that Republicans had a winning line of attack only 20 years ago, and no reason to give it up.

Hopes are palpable for the GOP that the late entry into the current race of former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson -- like Ronald Reagan a charming movie actor capable of countrified plain talk -- will rekindle the Reagan magic.

But that risks focusing on the aesthetics rather than the substance.

Whether Sen. Thompson ends up at the head of the pack of not, what gets Republicans elected is a credible emphasis on the smaller-government philosophy -- reducing taxes and regulations and leaving men free to lead their own lives -- which traces a direct line from Robert A. Taft to Barry Goldwater to Ronald Reagan.

And from that perspective alone, Tuesday evening's Republican presidential debate in Michigan was reassuring. Rather than take the opportunity to promise residents of the economically hard-hit state of Michigan various packages of federal aid and sustenance, the Republican contenders instead scrapped and brawled over who was the biggest tax-cutter.

"The point is that you've got to control taxes, but I did it, he didn't," former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani lashed out.

"It's a nice line, but it's baloney," responded former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. "Mayor, you've got to check your facts."

Yay! It would certainly be better to talk of "cutting" taxes rather than merely "controlling" them. But finally, this once-fumbling sextet appear to have found "the line" on which they can indeed "fight it out all summer."

Who will prove best able -- and most credible -- in carrying the banner of tax cuts, smaller government, more freedom, and less bureaucratic meddling in our lives remains to be seen. But they've got a banner, and that's a start.